Cache is about to be the first store to shutter in the new Mall at University Town Center.

The dress retailer, known for its evening gown wear often popular at high school proms, is closing stores nationwide. The company filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. It plans to close more than 150 stores, including its brand new store in Southwest Florida, which opened in October.

Liquidation sale signs hang from the windows in the store at the Mall at University Town Center. Merchandise is marked off 40 to 70 percent this week. It is unclear when the store will shutter for good.

The company began in Miami in the 1970s selling formal wear to young women. Cache doubled its amount of stores in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it hasn’t turned a profit since 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Cache is the first store to close inside the Mall at University Town Center, but not the first to break a lease. Tory Burch, a designer retail store, advertised on signs inside the mall that it was opening a store during the spring. The space is vacant and still available for lease.

B&B Burger & Beer Joint, a Miami-based restaurant chain that serves gourmet burgers and craft beer, took over a restaurant space formerly leased by Zinburger, a Phoenix-based wine and burger bar chain. B&B is expected to open this week.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

The shell of the former Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Westfield Group’s Southgate Mall is being demolished this week to make room for a Cobb Cinebistro movie theater.

Sarasota-based Graber Excavators began breaking down the department store earlier this week, which has been empty since October when the retailer abandoned the 40,000-square-foot space for a brand new two-story store at the Mall at University Town Center.

The demolition, which is expected to last through the weekend, is the first step toward building a 7-screen Cobb Cinebistro, an upscale movie theater and restaurant chain that will replace the anchor space at the Westfield Group mall. The movie theater is expected to open by the end of the year.

Westfield announced in 2013 that Southgate would be remodeled into an outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment space. In addition to new fixtures and overall décor, the mall will add 46,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, taken from its parking lot facing Tamiami Trail, to create an outdoor “street-like” feel, with stone-cobbled walkways and open-area, covered paths.

Photos by Nick Adams, Herald-Tribune staff

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Ziti, an Asian-Italian fusion restaurant, closed its doors inside Southgate Mall due to the drop in foot traffic after the Mall at University Town Center opened, which caused many of Southgate’s tenants to shutter.

“It is with heavy heart that we close the doors on Ziti,” reads a message on the restaurant’s website. “Unfortunately we could not withstand the overwhelmning drop in traffic for the mall after the opening of UTC.”

The restaurant was the only sit down eatery inside the Westfield Group mall. Too Jay’s Deli still remains open.

At this point, it does not look like restaurant owners will reopen Ziti in another Sarasota location.

Ziti opened in Southgate Mall in February 2013, after Cosimo’s Brick Oven, an Italian restaurant, vacated the mall and reopened later on Clark Road in south Sarasota.

The new restaurant was located near Dillard’s and Talbots in the mall on Tamiami Trail and Bee Ridge Road. Ziti was known for its full-service bar and happy hour specials that offered 20 signature martinis.

Westfield announced in 2013 that Southgate would be remodeled into an outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment space. In addition to new fixtures and overall décor, the mall will add 46,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, taken from its parking lot facing Tamiami Trail, to create an outdoor “street-like” feel, with stone-cobbled walkways and open-area, covered paths.

Two new restaurants are slated to open in Southgate Mall later this year. Connor’s Steak & Seafood, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based restaurant chain, and BRAVO!, an Italian restaurant chain, have signed leases at the Westfield property. A seven-screen Cobb Cinebistro movie theater, full bar and restaurant is to open in the former Saks Fifth Avenue anchor space, also later this year.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Connors Steak & Seafood, a restaurant chain owned by Connor Concepts Inc., will open its second Florida restaurant at Westfield Group’s Southgate Mall later this year.

The Knoxville, Tenn.-based chain is known for its seafood, aged steak entrees and affordable menu prices. Prime rib sells for $28 for a 16-ounce cut and seafood prices range from $16 to $28 per plate. The company has four locations in Knoxville, Tenn., Franklin, Tenn., Huntsville, Ala., and Fort Myers.

Connors inked a deal with Westfield Group late last year. The restaurant, which is expected to be 6,800 square feet and include an outdoor patio, will likely open in late 2015, said Bo Connors, a managing partner of the chain.

“The renovations plans (for Southgate Mall) in Sarasota are really nice looking,” Connor said. “There’s a lot of activity going on at that site and we’re very excited to be apart of it.”

Westfield Group declined to comment on the addition of the restaurant.

Connors Steak & Seafood opened its first restaurant in Knoxville in 2004. The Fort Myers restaurant opened in 2012 in the Gulf Coast Town Center, an outdoor retail center near Interstate 75. The restaurant received a AAA 3 -Diamond rating from the trade group.

“We’ve been very happy with our Fort Myers location and are looking to expand into other areas in Florida,” Connor said.

Connors Steak & Seafood is the latest announcement of several to come as apart of Southgate Mall’s revamp. Connors joins BRAVO! Cucina Italiana, by Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, also the parent of Brio Tuscan Grille, at the mall at Bee Ridge Road and Tamiami Trail. BRAVO!, an Italian restaurant chain, is also expected to open this year.

The restaurants and some new retailers, like Abercrombie & Fitch, among others, are expected to help transform the Westfield Group mall as it transitions into an outdoor lifestyle center with a new name, “Westfield Siesta Key.”

Last year Westfield Group confirmed plans to open a 7-screen Cobb Cinebistro movie theater in the former Saks Fifth Avenue anchor space. The movie theater, which has a full bar and restaurant, is also expected to open this year.

The Australian mall operator announced in 2013 that Southgate would be remodeled into an outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment space. In addition to new fixtures and overall décor, the mall will add 46,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, taken from its parking lot facing Tamiami Trail, to create an outdoor “street-like” feel with stone cobbled walkways and open-area covered paths.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

After just two years, Joel Ellzey, the general manager of Saks Fifth Avenue at the Mall at University Town Center, is leaving Sarasota.

Ellzey, who formerly managed the Saks store at Westshore Plaza in Tampa before coming to Sarasota to transition the Saks brand from Westfield Group’s Southgate Mall to the new Mall at University Town Center, has accepted a vice president general manager position at the Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Boston.

Ellzey sent personal emails to Saks clients this week, announcing his departure.

He took over the Sarasota Saks in February 2013, when it was still just a 40,000-square-foot department store at Southgate Mall. He helped the staff open the 80,000-square-foot, two-story anchoring store at the new Mall at University Town Center, which debuted at Interstate 75 and University Parkway in October. The new Saks is the second in the chain to open with an in-house restaurant, called Sophie’s, inside.

Ellzey, 46, was tasked with bringing in new customers while also maintaining an existing base of upscale shoppers.

“Joel has done amazing things here and was our leader in positioning us in our new market,” said Sally Schule, marketing director for Saks Fifth Avenue in Sarasota. “He’s going to be missed.”

Ellzey was only the third manager in the Sarasota store’s 19-year history. Schule was the store’s GM since 2005, but stepped down to focus on marketing efforts regionwide.

His replacement is Terri Najmolhoda, who comes to Sarasota also from the former Tampa Saks Fifth Avenue store. Najmolhoda most recently worked as a vice present general manager in Chevy Chase, Md. However, she worked at the Tampa store until it closed in May 2013.

Najmolhoda joined Saks Fifth Avenue in 2008 and has worked for the company in a variety of positions since then. She started as a designer sales associate in Troy, Mich., where she was promoted to manager. In 2009, she worked as an assistant general manager of merchandising at the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Boca Raton. She came to Tampa in 2013, and was the store’s general manager when Ellzey left for Sarasota.

“A lot of our associates already know her and have worked with her, since they came to our store from Tampa,” Schule said.

Najmolhoda will take over as general manager in Sarasota on March 2.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.